The Impossible Kids
by Blue Mistfall
Summary: The fic deals with Rhodette "Rhodie" Smith, the daughter of Rose and Handy (aka John, Tentoo or Metacrisis Doctor) who happened to travel with Eleventh Doctor. She didn't even expect that during punishment tidying up she could meet someone just like herself - with all the consequences.


**_A/N: This is a fic written with using two characters that do not belong to me - Alice Tyler and Kaster Tyler (while Rhodie Smith is my character). They are the children of Rose and Handy (aka Tentoo or Metacrisis Doctor), but from mirror realities, so they should have never met. But still something goes wrong... The story takes place while Rhodie travels with the Eleventh Doctor and his foster human son Johnny-Jimmy._**

**_Reviews are great and will totally make my day!_**

* * *

"I cross the Void beyond the Mind,  
The empty space that circles Time,  
I see where others stumble blind  
To seek the truth they never find,  
Eternal wisdom is my kind..."

Punishments appeared to be legal here. Besides they were too deserved and too traditional... It all began quite simply - Rhodie had nearly fallen off the cliff due to her own curiosity. But the mountains they had come to this time were unusual. They had some eerie gravity like in the famous room from Asher's lithograph, so you could walk on the walls and on the ceiling, upside down, there. But the main trick was that jumping on such "specially gravitational" areas was banned or the always-present law of gravity would take its rights... Though Rhodie hadn't bounced, but in some moment she was attracted by a crack in one of the rocks, and she had reached out to it too intensely, so only her toes had been holding her on the wall (she had been standing there, literally)... and if the Doctor hadn't caught her by her overalls' straps, Rhodie would have fallen from the ten-meter height.

Her, the Doctor's and Johnny-Jimmy's mood had been spoilt. When they had got back to the TARDIS, the Doctor had rebuked Rhodie (he was obviously sincerely worried about her - always) and had sent her to the attic to tide it up as a punishment. And as far as no one had been there otherwise than to add one more portion of junk... this was not an easy task. But it was also interesting - there were loads of different things there! Only one thing spoiled the atmosphere - TARDIS had locked the attic door at her own will.

Right now Rhodie was examining some mechanisms - they were fluffy because of no one's using them for many years - caught herself on singing these weird lines. She had no clue how they got to her head. Like in Martian Chronicles, she thought - the words were coming to people's minds, and people sang them without understanding... Maybe it was some kind of hypnosis? Maybe TARDIS was adding something from herself to Rhodie's helpless state. But no. Everything was quiet downstairs, and usually the engine's noise was filling all things...

"What's this?" Having cleaned one more mechanical trifle from dust, Rhodie examined it with her look. It was something like the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, but it was shorter, thinner and of different colors - silver with the blue light on the tip. Yes, it was the sonic screwdriver. "Just what I needed!"

Having rubbed her hands clean with some relatively clean rag (it was also suspiciously scratchy - it must have been an original of some ancient embroidery or something), Rhodie made her way through the hills of "rubbish" to the thing she had cleaned first. She was attracted by its size. It always seems that work will go on faster if you clean such a huge lump first... This was something like an arch of approximately the same height and width as the well-known "police box", and of the same color too. It even had the lantern on its top.

"Well, if there's one more unfinished TARDIS, why shouldn't I try? But it could be worse with the two of them... Whether I know! It hardly is a TARDIS". Having quickly discovered the sonic screwdriver's controlling (it wasn't too complicated, even Johnny-Jimmy could operate it!), Rhodie started messing in the control panel on the "arch's" side. It looked somehow like a portal from her favourite videogame Spyro the Dragon. And unknown words made their way out again.

"Through cosmic waste the TARDIS flies  
To taste the secret source of life,  
Prison and science can't deny  
Of Him outside and behind,  
The latitude of human mind..."

Suddenly something sparkled and twirled, and Rhodie was thrown back, in a pile of boxes filled with anything you wanted. TARDIS as if woke up, having given out a sound with "How dare you!" intonation at her will, and everything got silent.

"Hello?.."

Rhodie was alone in the attic - no words, alone in TARDIS. No one could have got here, so... Having clumsily changed her position and having hit lots of corners, Rhodie peeked from behind her "barricade". Nothing was too scary, but she wasn't alone anymore.

A boy of about her age was lying on the floor - he had just been thrown out of the "portal", that's for sure. And he was human... or looked like that. The Doctor also was a "liar" in this direction... The kid's hair was so dark that his face in such a "frame" (though this hair was quite short and sticking up, and he also had freckles) seemed to be chalk white, and his dark brown eyes were seen clearly, as if he were an anime character.

"Looks like I blacked out for a mo'", he muttered, standing up. It seemed to Rhodie for a moment that he was going to break in two. "Was I thrown to some waste yard?.. What is this place?.."

"This is the TARDIS", Rhodie informed. The boy stared at her:

"What?!"

"TARDIS".

"That means I..."

But what was about "I", the boy didn't succeed to tell - the "portal" whirred again, and one more living being was thrown onto the floor with a flash, this time it was a girl... who seemed to be ready for anything. Hardly had she landed when she jumped up and took a fight pose:

"Who's there? I'm warning you, I'm armed! Ah..."

This would look tremendously funny for adults if they saw it, Rhodie thought. Yeah, a little girl with two pigtails (the impression would be stronger if they were white instead of being dark brown), wearing a wide yellow skirt and clutching a cat plushie... and ready for fight. Fascinating.

"They seem to be harmless, don't they, Brigadier?" said the newcomer to her toy. Then Rhodie got as if an injection was made to her - these two "newbies" were too familiar to her. At least she knew the name of this "fight-y" girl.

"You're Alice, am I right?" she asked.

"You know this?.. For the ones who don't know I'm Miss Tyler... Isn't your name Rhodette?"

"Rhodie".

"And I'm Kaster", the boy interfered.

"Kaster?" This also was strangely familiar for Rhodie. And not only for her: Alice was quicker to mention:

"Is it... the matter I'm thinking about?"

"Yeh", shrugged Kaster. "I was named after the constellation which was named after the astronomer who discovered it".

"Everything is tangled..." This was the only reaction Rhodie could perform.

"At least it's better than Agony-Without-End-Shall-Be-The-Doctor's-Punishment", without making a breath, Alice shot out.

"WHAT?!" exclaimed Rhodie and Kaster at the same time. But that wasn't enough for Alice:

"Or Vengeance-Will-Be-Ours-When-The-Doctor-Dies-A-Thousand-Agonizing-Deaths".

"Oh..." Why did they get so cross at Doctor?..

"Or Cut-Out-The-Doctor's-Living-Heart", Alice finished.

"Where did you learn this?!" Kaster's brown "saucers" widened till the impossible size.

"Weren't you told?" Alice was sincerely surprised. "I thought.. Well, it's quite funny".

"What's funny?.."

"The matter that we are here. We're impossible".

* * *

"That's right. We're all such… three-quarter ones. Impossible, as I said." Alice was nervously tugging her "Brigadier's" paw. "Just my interest: why were we called this way? It's clear with you, Kaster. As about me… Daddy said this name was given from Kreolean duke, his friend and the ruler of the Abbarabia planet, Mum noticed it was taken from Carroll's tale, and Jackie recalled that this was the name of her great-great-grandmother…"

"And I was named after both parents. "Rhodie" is like "Rose" and "Handy" together… in some way", Rhodie put in. "And what are we going to do? How did it happen that we're all here?.. The Doctor said there are Universes that are like the reflections of ours, and things repeating themselves are possible. With a bit of change…"

"What a bit!" Kaster snorted.

"…but interference is not a good thing", Rhodie went on. "Like that… probability-traction engine".

"Which traction?.."

"Didn't you read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? Well, it's kind of thing that increases probability. Makes almost impossible…"

"…or a little bit improbable things true", Alice finished. "Can we at least get out of here? You can't imagine how much I want to see it all for real…"

TARDIS let a long unsatisfied sound out – Rhodie immediately imagined her human copy shaking her fist to the three.

"Listen, we almost made a hole in the Universe", Kaster put in. "And maybe we did – we're locked and we have no idea what's going on outside… How did we get here anyway?"

Rhodie pointed at the "portal". Alice didn't lose time in exploring the mechanism which was still giving out tiny blasts of smoke, not letting her stuffed cat go and commenting her discoveries:

"Bah, there's a working chameleon circuit here! But it seems to be cycled, like TARDIS's… or no, it got adapted. The outer cover was the example, that's why this… this… well, this arch copied TARDIS's appearance. "

"If this portal was brought into a house, it would take the shape of the house itself?" Rhodie guessed.

"Exactly! Now we only have to work out how to get us home… What's that?" Alice took the sonic screwdriver dropped by Rhodie up. "Like Daddy's. Used it to mend?"

"Yes".

While Alice was trying to set the options, Kaster began wandering around the attic. Finally he was attracted by something like the remains of a vintage car (seventy years old at least, if to count from Rhodie's native time… and maybe from everyone's) – or it was a car, but it had no body cover so all of its "organs" were shown. Kaster wasn't embarrassed by this, and he climbed under this labyrinth of wires and gears together with some anachronisms. Yeah, the Doctor's work… Soon buzzing with some weirdly familiar lines sounded under there:

"My voyage dissects the course of Time,  
Who knows? You say that... Are you right?  
Who searches deep to find the light  
And glows so darkly in the night?  
Towards that point I guard my fleet.  
A Sangrias move to end Mankind,  
Metallic teeth begin to grind.  
With sword of truth I turn to fight  
The Satanic Powers of the Night,  
Is your faith before your mind?  
Know me. Am I..."

"What are you singing, Kaster?" Rhodie interrupted him. "Before you got here I was singing something with the same rhythm… and style. Where did you get this?"

"No clue". Kaster's head, chin up, poked from under the "gear complex". "It buzzes like a bee in my ear. I've never heard such a song. I don't know if it's a song at all".

Alice's astonished expression gave it all out – same thing happened to her. One more coincidence… But the song seemed to be over – Kaster vanished under the car, humming a different thing:

"'Twas brillig, and the slithy towes did gyre and gimble in the wabe, all mimsy were the borogroves, and the mome rath outgrabe…"

Silence.

"Weren't you told about TARDIS, about... em... the real Doctor and all?" Alice suddenly asked without stopping her examination. Rhodie shook her head. "This means the likeness is less than I thought..."

Rhodie wanted to reply something, but froze with her mouth open: the space in front of her and Alice cracked in all the senses of this word. Doctor used to show her the video and photo files of "time cracks", and this one was very much like it, but it wasn't shining with blinding white - this color was replaced by smoke which changed its color from greyish cobalt blue to burning orange.

"A-A-Alice, has your dad ever told you about this?.." Rhodie moved back, not daring to tear her eyes off the crack between the floor and the ceiling. Alice's reaction - stumbling back together with her - was the obvious answer.

BZZZT!

Lightning flashed for a moment, and something like a three-meter-high bat with wings like dirty grey sails dashed out of the crack, yelping so that Rhodie got deaf for a second. But it was no time to lose - the beast's blood-red eyes were staring at the girls, nowhere else!

"Aaaaaah!" Rhodie got almost caught by her foot when the "bat" attacked her, attempting to grab her. Meanwhile another monster, similar to the first one, flew out of the crack, and this time it was Alice who was close to being caught. The girls hurried to the door, but it was locked. "Help!" Rhodie yelped, banging at it. "TARDIS, you stubborn blue box, help! Help us get out of here!"

"She wants to", horrified, whispered Alice. "She can't!"

"What?!"

"No time for... aaaaah!.. "what"!"

Noise of different kind - engine starting its work - made Rhodie think that she was about to get nuts, but next second she saw its source was a dusty motorbike Kaster was attempting to start.

"Come here!" he called. One more portion of bouncing back and forth (judging by the crack's glittering, the "bats" were about to get one more helper) - and the motorbike crashed into the attic door, having broken it to smithereens. Rhodie didn't care how she got onto it and how did Kaster, the same five-year-old as she, manage to drive it - the main was that the three of them were driving for their lives through the TARDIS's endless corridors, clinging to each other for dear life.

Right turn, left turn - they were taken more at bike's than at Kaster's will. No matter. There was a teeny tiny chance to escape from the "bats"... and there already was a whole bunch of them chasing three kids on a bike. It was a miracle that the poor vehicle hasn't fallen to the side.

The bike's wheels squeaked - what an ear-ripping sound! - and one more sudden turn was taken. The corridors changed to the library labyrinth, and the rain of books immediately covered Alice, Rhodie and Kaster, because it wasn't an easy task to hold the bike far from the shelves, and some "bats" were already over them under the higher ceiling. Of course, the monsters were oblivious to the volumes covering the floor.

But it wasn't the worst.

Something much worse could happen - this thought stroke Rhodie when she recalled what was directly next to the library.

"Kaster! We're leading right to the pool, change the direction!" she screamed, not hearing her voice in the cacophony of "bats'" shrieks, bike roaring and books hitting the floor. But it was too late. The vehicle was living its own life, and the boy only struggled to stay on it.

One more endless and yet so short flight - and the kids felt themselves in a water whirl, and silence which surrounded them knocked them out for some seconds. Kaster was the first to swim up and pull the girls up to the air together with him, though he was at his limit. Spitting out the water (right now it was mixed with dust, dirt, machine oil and something that had metallic taste) and coughing, he didn't try to swim - this mad ride stiffened him for some seconds, but the "bats", though they were here, were rushing to them and flying back, as if there was an invisible shield between them and the kids.

"Are we dead?.." Alice gasped, vomiting water in pauses between her words. "Poor us and poor Brigadier..."

"And poor TARDIS", Rhodie put in. "Why are they leaving?"

Really, now the three children were left alone.

"I don't know... Something prevented those beasts from getting us", Kaster mumbled, sadly looking around at what had happened to the place. The bike, now completely useless, was under the water (if this freshly created awful mix could be called water, it was worse than in wasted rivers), right next to the huge wreckage in the pool's wall. "Let's get out of the water, or we're going to catch a cold".

"Stop! What if water was that barrier which kept us safe?" Alice noticed.

"I doubt it. When we were in the library, some of those hunters were over our heads, but they didn't catch us", Rhodie recalled.

"Fabulous", Kaster finished, climbing onto the room's floor.

The three children clang to each other again, partly because they were scared, partly because they were almost freezing. Yeah, falling into cold water after such a ride...

"Gosh, Rhodie, you're like a living ice lump", muttered Alice, clattering her teeth.

"Daddy said that's because I'm not fully human", sniffing, replied Rhodie. "Usual temperature, worrying..."

"All together we make two and a quarter humans and three quarters of a Timelord", nervously chuckled Kaster, but in a second got serious: "Hey, wait... that must be it! Alice, you're the smartest in this direction... those flying freaks... are they here to get rid of the paradox? Of us, I mean". Alice nodded. "So our protection was our touching each other! They thought we merged into one creature and... What a blast!" He let out a long tired sigh. "Let's put our Timelord pieces together and get warmer".

For three or four minutes Rhodie, Alice and Kaster were sitting, pressed to each other, and slowly, but surely attempting to make their single heart beat a bit faster. Kaster's trial gained results quicker - at the beginning the girls thought that he had a fever, but then his body temperature evened out.

"When I was very small, my second heart was removed with surgery help", he explained. "I was born with two hearts, but with a... erm..."

"Vascular system", - Alice informed.

"Yeah, it was single and pumping too much blood... But three hearts are better than one, as Daddy says. What are we going to do now?"

"First we gotta get back to the attic, and then..." - Rhodie couldn't imagine what they were going to perform "then". But Alice summed it up:

"And then the fun begins".

* * *

It couldn't be said about TARDIS's mood if it got better or worse. She wasn't silent anymore: while the children were walking through her corridors, she was whooshing from time to time to let them know if they were on the correct way to the attic. At least she wasn't sulking…

"And I'll have to tide this all up from the very beginning", Rhodie murmured while they were planning their steps among the book piles in the library. Books were holy things, especially the ones which were here.

"Come on, Rhodes, wasn't there a situation when the Doctor created a mess without at least masking it?" sarcastically asked Kaster, waiting till she steps onto the book-free floor square – all three were holding hands in case the "bats" attack again. And it was much more comfortable this way – there was a felt support. "I'm sure he won't let you mend this", he pointed at the bookshelf which was now almost forty-five degrees ankle to the floor. It was a miracle that it was still standing.

"Uh-huh, but Johnny-Jimmy never created such chaos…"

"Who's Johnny-Jimmy?" Alice interfered and squeaked with delight – she noticed her black stuffed cat among the fallen books. She had lost it during the "greatest escape", and now it was under the weight of some ancient-looking volumes.

"He's the Doctor's foster child", - Rhodie explained. "He told me that the Doctor brought him up since he was tiny".

"Human?" Kaster put in, tip-toeing like a ballerina among the relatively clean floor patches.

"Fully human, unlike us…"

A high-pitched shriek made ears of the three blocked – there was a "guarding" beast in the library which was flying in loops over their heads. To their relief, their "holding hands shield" worked – the "bat" couldn't reach them, no matter how it tried.

"How do you fight bats?" Alice whispered, pressing her "Brigadier" to her side with her free hand. To both girls' surprise, Kaster laughed and began singing at the top of his lungs (which could be as freakishly larger that ordinary human ones as Doctor's, Rhodie thought):

"Hello Mr. Alien,  
No, you can't hide from me,  
I can turn off your disguise  
Very easy peasy!  
Oh, you're made of metal?  
I can break you piece by piece,  
I'll use my sonic screwdriver and yell allons-y!"

No matter what it was, it worked – acoustics in the library was pretty awful, so it was an impression that a thousand Kasters was singing in unison with the real one:

"Y-yell allons-y! Y-yell allons-y!"

"I'll use my sonic screwdriver and yell allons-y!" Kaster shrieked. The "bat's" loops under the ceiling got more curved patterns, and the boy, inspired by this, went on bouncing and singing:

"In a pinch  
If I need to amplify some X-rays,  
Or identify a substance  
From a ship in deep space,  
Or need to save your consciousness  
To a planet sized PC,  
I'll use my sonic screwdriver and yell allons-y!"

"What are you doing, Kaster?" Alice shot out.

"Trust me", the boy replied and went on torturing his throat:

"Stop blinkin', stop blinkin',  
I don't wanna weep anymore!  
I left my sonic back on the TARDIS!  
Stop blinkin', stop blinkin',  
I don't wanna weep anymore!  
I left my screwdriver back on the TARDIS!  
Someone stole my ride, wanna limit it's range,  
Gonna use my sonic screwdriver!  
Wanna add to a phone that universal roam,  
Gonna use my sonic screwdriver!"

Alice snatched the forgotten device Kaster was singing about out of her skirt pocket and tried to aim it at the monster over them, but no use. It wasn't stopping, and Kaster made it even worse with his imperfect singing. And it didn't prevent the kid from going on:

"My sonic doesn't work on wood  
But it's not the only answer,  
Just look at the Master,  
I beat him once with laughter!  
Fifth me had no screwdriver  
And it was no disaster,  
But I'm glad I got it back, sir,  
It makes things go much faster!"

The "bat's" head must have been cracking with pain – its position in the air was getting more and more topsy-turvy.

"It can fix electronics or weld together things,  
Also it can triplicate the flammability!  
Got a wound or cut that needs some minor healing?  
I'll use my sonic screwdriver and yell allons-y!"

A thousand Kasters and now the girls caught up:

"Y-yell allons-y! Y-yell allons-y! I'll use my sonic screwdriver and yell allons-y!"

Now it was time for the chorus, and rhythmical thumping on the floor together with the sonic's buzzing was added to the three voices:

"Stop blinkin', stop blinkin',  
I don't wanna weep anymore!  
I left my sonic back on the TARDIS!  
Stop blinkin', stop blinkin',  
I don't wanna weep anymore!  
I left my screwdriver back on the TARDIS!  
Someone stole my ride, wanna limit it's range,  
Gonna use my sonic screwdriver!  
Wanna add to a phone that universal roam,  
Gonna use my sonic screwdriver!"

And the beast was finally blacked out by the million-times increased "GERONIMO!" – it bumped onto the floor, making the books and pages fly all over the place and creating even worse jumble than before. The children hurried away before it would wake up again.

"Kaster, you Master", mumbled Rhodie, coughing – her throat was aching after such a concert. She could only imagine in what condition Kaster's gullet was – he was the main singer. "Where did you learn this?"

"Daddy taught me". And it was true – Kaster's voice changed to hoarse whisper. "Bats have too perfect hearing, so… let's move on until we're caught."

"Now I'm going to have nightmares about not blinking",- Alice hissed. She wasn't an exception in overwhelming her voice.

* * *

Rhodie was about to faint when they finally reached the attic door. Just like some tomboy she once met. What was her name, Paul Steamer?.. Yes, yes, her real name was Pauline, but it was too long and boring. "Paul" fitted her much better. But that was not the matter. Paul would never admit that she was injured or that something hurt her. And Rhodie wouldn't surrender now – just like her.

Kaster's freckles were more like leopard's spots on his face, and Alice was hardly keeping her "Brigadier" in clasp, but all three were holding hands till numbing fingers. Definitely, the Impossible Kids would all keep their being exhausted inside.

"Well, here we go…" Kaster coughed – his voice was returning to normal step by step. "What are you prepared for?"

"The worst". Rhodie giggled, not letting something more desperate come out. "All together?"

"All together".

Pull – and the children were deaf with shrieks from all sides. The attic, no matter how large it was, was swarming with flying creatures, so at the first second the kids almost released their grip on each other's hands, but managed to make their "shield" stay.

"They lost no time", Alice mumbled. "Finey-wimey! Let's carry on to that portal, I think I know how to fix it! Thanks, Kaster!"

"For what?"

"You left my right hand free", Alice grinned.

The most difficult was making the way to the "portal". And it was not only because of the "bats", not only because of junk stacks on the floor – Rhodie had never felt that she's merely a five-year-old girl as clearly as during these endless moments. And she had a new feeling. As if hearts of her "companions in distress" were hers.

KasterKasterKasterKasterKasterKaster… AliceAliceAliceAliceAliceAlice… RhodieRhodieRhodieRhodieRhodieRhodie… All in the same rhythm. Three hearts are really better than one.

"Rhodie, help me. I need a hand. Literally". Alice was fiddling near the "portal's" controls. "All right, all right, it's potluck. Total potluck… Ah!" She bounced up when the wing of one of the beasts almost touched her head – the children were like in a cage of them. No way out. And the "crack in the wall" wasn't going to stop letting their helpers out, judging by its glittering.

"That's what disabled feel like, I suppose", Rhodie thought, helping Alice replace the broken gears. And Kaster was about to perform the "deafening" trick again though his voice was almost out:

"Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me,  
I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed!  
She was looking kind of dumb with her finger and her thumb  
In the shape of an "L" on her forehead!"

"Kaster, what are you doing? You're really going to get dumb!" Alice hissed.

"They want logic and order. And I want no logic and order!" Kaster exclaimed and went on:

"Well, the years start coming and they don't stop coming,  
Fed to the rules and I hit the ground running!  
Didn't make sense not to live for fun -  
Your brain gets smart but your head gets dumb!  
So much to do, so much to see,  
So what's wrong with taking the back streets?  
You'll never know if you don't go,  
You'll never shine if you don't glow!"

This time it also worked, though less. There were less acoustics here and Kaster's voice wasn't as loud as before, so the "bats" did get dizzy, but not as much as before. Meanwhile Alice and Rhodie, their fingers trembling, were pushing the details to their places – the mechanism was quite simple, and their Gallifreyan particles did work in full force. The full-blood Gallifreyan children used to be extremely smart, so why couldn't the ones which had a chunk of alien DNA be such just for a while? It was like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. An incredible jigsaw puzzle.

"Hey, now you're an All Star, get your game on, go play!  
Hey, now you're a Rock Star, get the show on, get paid!  
And all that glitters is gold -  
Only shooting stars break the mold!.."

* * *

"Rhodie! We're back!" The Doctor, cheerful as always, hopped into TARDIS doors… and froze with his mouth open. The console room was in such condition as if there had been a hurricane in there. Walls were scratched, the console was buried under the lumps of metal from the ceiling, and it was incredible that the glass floor survived it. A five-year-old girl couldn't have created such havoc, especially such a quiet and well-mannered girl as Rhodie was. "All right then, Rhodie, where are you? I'm not angry at you anymore!"

Johnny-Jimmy was quicker to get to the attic door though the way there was also completely cluttered. Oh dear, was there a bunch of ninjas or whatever? – he thought. The attic door was hanging on its upper hinge, and behind it…

"Oh gods, Rhodie…" The Doctor was slower to get to the door, but faster to rush to unconscious Rhodie supine among the piles of some-centuries-old rubbish. She was pale as paper and breathing very weakly, but the beating of her little heart was still as stubborn as it has always been. The Doctor scooped her up and mentioned that her limbs were shaking. Obviously some disaster had happened. Oh dears, her Timelord talent of attracting troubles was inherited, Doctor thought in horror, alert at Rhodie who immediately grabbed his lapel and nuzzled into his shoulder. He patted her back, whispering some sweet nonsense to lull her, until she got silent. It must have been residual fear. Or fear kept inside… Damned Paul Steamer. Damned tomboyish girl who taught Rhodie to keep everything inside…

What was she clutching? There was something in her left hand. She was holding his old sonic screwdriver (which obviously had been broken in the very first day of the Doctor's eleventh life) and two cloth patches, one camouflaged and the other TARDIS blue.

"What happened, Doctor-daddy?.." Johnny-Jimmy didn't dare to come closer when he saw his foster father coming out of the attic with the most sorrow expression. But then the Doctor smiled a bit:

"There was a catastrophe, no doubt. But it's all over. And it's all fine, I'm sure. Not only for our Rhodie, for everybody".

* * *

**References:**

**1) At the very beginning Rhodie sings a real-existent poem "I Am The Doctor" (which is then continued by Kaster). If you're interested, look here: watch?v=x7tKAi-lDhM**

**2) The long Doctor-hating names which Alice mentions are taken from the Fourth Doctor story The Roots of Evil.**

**3) While fiddling with the dissected car, Kaster hums Jabberwocky, like Third Doctor did in Doctor Who and the Silurians.**

**4) Kaster's phrase "Three hearts are better than one" is a reference to the Third Doctor story The Spear of Destiny.**

**5) The "bats" are the Reapers from the Father's Day episode.**

**6) The song which Kaster uses as a weapon in the library is the remake of Lady Gaga's song Telephone called Sonic Screwdriver. Full version here: watch?v=UydYg5HLCpw Later he sings All Star by Smash Mouth.**


End file.
